I’d be happy to. Send me an e-mail when you get into town and we can meet up.

Thanks for the comment- I do see your point and am familiar with the argument that a divided government creates a healthy sort of gridlock preventing harmful legislation.

My issue with the Senate is that as a body it is fundamentally biased toward rural and conservative interests due to its equal appropriation of seats to all states. This is a problem no matter which party is in the majority.

A second problem with the Senate is in the rules- the filibuster law doesn’t do anything but hamstring the efforts of the majority to implement any legislation. I’d say Republican opposition to Obama’s health care has less to do with actual principle and more to do with the fact that should they break party discipline they go extinct. That not a single member of the Republican Senate caucus has proposed a viable alternative to the Obama plan is not a coincidence.

One other point to make- while you’re correct that the founding fathers intended the Senate to be the ‘world’s greatest deliberative body’, its real existence results from a compromise between the larger and smaller colonies during the Constitutional convention period.

Now that the risk that smaller states such as Wyoming or Rhode Island shall secede from the union appears to be nil, I’d argue that the Senate has more than outlived its usefulness and should be replaced by something more broadly democratic.

Do you live in Kunming? If so I’d be happy to debate this over a beer. Shoot me an e-mail.

Since, today I am also in a good mood, I shall engage in your debate…

Fact is almost 70% of Americans oppose the proposed health care plan… look at any polls. Your idea is… this is disgrace of government unable to get things done… my view is, the result, thankfully, is the intended structure of our government.

The Senate has protected my rights as citizen from legislation I abhore…. and therefore I am thankful…

I hope you can see just a little constructive thinking in this, eh?

Let’s meet for a beer some time to have a lively debate…

Jay

The state of political discourse in the USA has kept me up at nights as of late, both because the policy debate (especially from Republicans) is so inane, shallow, and sensational these days, while our actions are astonishingly foolish and short-sighted: The Afghanistan Peace Prize escalation, The Honduras double-cross, The Looming Cost Crisis of Social Programs, Tea Party Raves against Big Government (while Saluting the Massive Military Machine).

No, it’s time for us to reframe the narrative, the dream of what our country will be. Not just “the greatest”, “number one”, or any of those tired bromides. What about a reforging our role as “leader for global progress and prosperity”? Education, sensible immigration policy, expand our knowledge and ability while we can….we’re by far the most diverse place on Earth, which translates to universal empathy and unparalleled brilliance through idea exchange.

But if the ranting Republicans want to save their collective identity by being “stunch” (ie, intransigent; ie, useless to constructive debate), let them. The next generation will put them to shame by pointing out the hypocrisies under each plank of their platform. Anti-big government? While we continue to spend astronomical amounts of GDP on war and war tech and intelligence? Pure idiocy.

But what else to expect of a generation that will go down in history as “the gluttonous ones who couldn’t pay their credit card bills”?

Im determined that the USA not succumb to the same fate as Rome, Spain, France, England, etc….the proud succession of fallen empires….

We just have to slap some people in the face to wake them up, or, let them go to sleep, so that the new, bright generation can take the wheel…..

….for this, my frustration at minimum age requirements for the senate and presidency – that preserve dinosaurs in power….

Love, J

ps – RIP Mr. Zinn.

Jay,

Because I’m in a good mood I’ll ignore your rather rude comment and debate it on its merits.

My point is that the divided government you so lovingly speak of is actually completely dysfunctional- how can you argue that power is corrupting the current administration when they haven’t been able to act on their agenda due to the intransigence of the minority party?

In other countries political parties that win elections are able to implement legislation in conformity with their electoral mandate. Just not in the US, which is why our broken health care system can’t be fixed.

Please keep your comments more constructive in the future, bud.

How is that even applicable to what you are even talking about? Let us take the bizarre assumption that Michelle is “ghetto”, which is a term I don’t care for anybody. Does anybody know anybody in the “ghetto” that has 20 people that attend to them? Isn’t the case that people are, you know, poor in the “ghetto”. Don’t most of the people who have 20 attendants have the means to afford them, like you know, people who live in mansions? Like Lindsay Lohan? I want to see one person living in West Oakland with 20 personal attendants.

And I don’t know how you could possibly equate her with “ghetto”. She has a Bachelor’s from Princeton and a Harvard Law Degree. She has been living an elite life for quite some time now. And yes, I understand she is African-American.